At present grapes and other fruit are grown in freestanding rows or on a trellis system. A number of different types of mechanical harvester have been used to harvest fruit and these include the machines described in French patent specification Nos. 2,654,701, 2,605,487 and 2,638,600. These harvesters normally consist of a straddle type tractor adapted to be driven over the row of bushes or the trellis. The tractor incorporates a shaker mechanism designed to contact each side of the bush or vine and subject it to sideways or other lateral movement at spaced vertical intervals. The shaker mechanism is designed to dislodge the fruit which falls under gravity to be collected on horizontally extending pivoting plates which form a collecting and conveying mechanism for the fruit. The tractor normally includes a conveyer mechanism or mechanisms for transferring the fruit from the collecting mechanism to a hopper or the like. The shaker mechanism as shown in the French specifications includes a series of horizontally extending shaker rods or bars positioned alongside each side of the internal passage through the harvester. The shaker rods are adapted by a mechanism or mechanisms to reciprocate in a horizontal plane.
Existing shaker bars have been constructed from metal or plastics materials and all have suffered from certain disadvantages in their effectiveness in creating the ideal motion for removing fruit.
An object of the present invention is to provide an alternative construction of shaker rod for a grape or fruit harvester.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description which is given by way of example only.